Two Months Old!

Hazel Grace turns two months old today!

She is doing very well.  Her O2 needs are not quite stable, but they stay pretty low, and her pressure is down to 27.  While that's a moderately high pressure for a baby, it's a great pressure for our Hazel who was at 44 two weeks ago.

She weighs 3 pounds, 4 ounces and is absolutely beautiful!  Because of her age and size, she is beginning to regulate her own body temperature, which means that she will be ready to move into an open crib soon.  She has to get off the ventilator first, though, so it will still be awhile even though the rest of her might be ready to move.  I am not anxious for her to move out of her isolette yet anyway since she gets a lot more quiet/dark time in her isolette which promotes sleeping and therefore brain development.  (Did you know that the brain only develops during sleep?  That's why it's so important!)

I know that she will need to get used to the noise and light of a 'regular' room, but she is still only 32 weeks gestational age, and even though most babies that are born at 32 weeks go straight to an open crib, since she was born so early, she's a bit behind on things, so I would like to see her tucked away a little longer.

It looks like that if all things are still going well by Sunday, I may actually get to hold her.  At last!  Even though I have been 'allowed' to hold her for the past week since she has gotten more stable, there has never been a time that I can go in to the NICU during the day for long enough to get her out, hold her and then tuck her back into her isolette.  I also want Jimmy to to be there for the first time she comes out which means that weekdays are out.  Of the four doctors in the NICU, 2 of them encourage holding and 2 don't, so I have to get there on a day that one of the ones who encourages it is on duty, so that limits us as well.

I am excited and a bit scared.  As much as I want to hold her, I don't want to extubate her accidentally in the process, and it also seems like every time I am this close to getting to hold her, she takes a bad turn and can't come out to play.  I know that there are benefits to my holding her, and those always need to be weighed against the trauma of moving her.  I want the absolute best for her, but I am also dying to hold her!

I can't believe that it's been a mere 2 months since she was born, and yet it seems like she has been a part of us forever now and I can't imagine life without her.  Maybe that sounds silly since she's not really here with us, but the trip to the hospital every day has become a bit of an anticipated routine.  Jimmy and I get to go and see her together and it's kind of funny that since we can't hold her and she is usually asleep when we get there, we end up just kind of hanging out together by her bed and chatting with each other and the nurses.  So in all of this, Jimmy and I have actually gotten quite a bit of time together, and baby Hazel sats (has good oxygen saturation) well when we are there and she hears our voices even though she is sleeping.

So, all in all, despite the upper right lobe of her lungs collapsing briefly on Sunday, she is doing quite well and we have high hopes of her continuing to both gain weight and develop healthy lung tissue.

But either way, she's hitting all the milestones that we expected of our 2 month old micro preemie:

Weight gain?  Check!
Incredibly resilient?  Check!
Superbly sweet and adorable?  Double check!